"CWI" 2005 Obituary

CWITCO o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-09-05 published
Keith OLEKSIUK
By Ross HOWARD and Gary
CWITCO,
Monday,September 5, 2005, Page
A16
Labour advocate, socialist, canoeist. Born April 3, 1947, in
Chippewa, Ontario Died Feb 22, in Vancouver, of cancer, aged
Keith OLEKSIUK had never considered his own obituary when he
was stricken with cancer. He rarely talked of his accomplishments
and his still-expanding career as a labour lawyer. For the last
two decades, his life had focused almost exclusively on labour
relations and New Democratic Party politics, his family and his
community in Vancouver. But he often recited the boyhood joys
of jumping into Chippewa Creek, near Niagara Falls, where he
was born.
Early on, Keith acquired a respect for sweat labour and harsh
conditions working summers in Chippewa's Norton foundry. At York
University he was an average arts student with an abnormal course
load in political theory. Keith ignored the campus protests over
co-ed dorms and marijuana laws, and quietly focused on bigger
issues. After graduation Keith joined the front lines of social-justice
advocacy, becoming director of the Toronto Unemployment Help
Centre. His evenings were eclectic: exploring Toronto's left-wing
political circles, and Toronto's music scene. Class-consciousness
was linked to most things about Keith: it was Grossman's and
the Silver Rail, not the O'Keefe Centre, for him. When he went
further afield, it was to the North -- the Nahanni River -- for
serious canoe-tripping.
The Marxist Institute attracted his intellectual curiosity but
its lack of activism held no lasting appeal. It was storefront
lawyers, getting dirty in the trenches, that propelled him to
Osgoode Hall Law School in 1980. It was there he met his future
wife, Cathy
AGNEW. In 1983 he joined the United Steelworkers
of America staff.
Keith enthusiastically tackled even arcane legal issues, but
he personally found most satisfaction in the long evening meetings
with steelworkers in towns such as Flin Flon, Snow Lake, Manitoba,
and Trail, British Columbia The plain-speaking young lawyer,
in blue jeans and leather jacket, could strategize with workers
over beers or the labour leadership across Canada.
In 1990, the steelworkers union lured Keith to Vancouver. This
new posting brought him before the British Columbia Labour Relations
Board. Shortly thereafter, then-premier Michael Harcourt's New
Democratic Party government tapped Keith as a vice-chair for
the Labour Relations Board. Although he had not sought the post,
Keith welcomed the chance to meld adjudication with a labour
consciousness. He also championed efficiency and intellectual
rigour in Labour Relations Board rulings. Premier Glen Clark
made him chair in 1996. He resigned in 2000 without public comment.
Keith was not one to waste his time on tired ideas or tiresome
individuals. As a lawyer and adjudicator, he deplored time-wasting
litigators arguing flimsy cases. He acknowledged posturing as
a form of protest but his patience was short.
Except on the playing field. When coaching his beloved Trout
Lake soccer, baseball or hockey teams, Keith had unlimited patience
for the weakest player. His encouragement for young teams, and
his attention to the minutiae, was a restorative alternative
to the cut-throat realm of British Columbia labour relations.
His children Danny, Shane and Kayla, were his greatest pride
and, with Cathy, the centre of his life.
By 2002 Keith was again before the British Columbia Labour Board,
as staff lawyer for the British Columbia Government Employees
Union fighting the new British Columbia Liberal government policies.
He also resumed New Democratic Party political activism and mused
about international work.
Life, although not necessarily the state of the world, pleased
Keith, but nothing fulfilled him more than the accomplishments
and love of his family.
His trademark ear-to-ear grin, his sparkling eyes and his good-hearted
challenging nature will be sorely missed.
Ross was Keith's canoe partner; Gary his sometimes squash partner.